8:25PM
Who wants to be an Egyptian Chalabi?
By 
Issandr El Amrani | Egypt US
Issandr El Amrani | Egypt US
A friend recently sent me the most ridiculous article I have ever read. It appeared, of course, in the National Review, the conservative US magazine that serves as a publication of choice for the conservative movement's intellectual mercenaries. This one deserves a bit of background to explain to the uninitiated why it is so ridiculous and full of falsehoods.
When I was starting out as a reporter for the Cairo Times in 2000, I became fixated with a man whose story, I believed, represented everything that went wrong with the Egyptian economy in the late 1990s. Rami Lakah was a businessman who had borrowed an enormous amount of money from Egyptian banks in the mid-1990s to expand his medical services empire and constitute a sizable private wealth. In the 2000 parliamentary elections, he ran and won in Cairo's Ezbekiah district. Lakah flirted with several parties, including the NDP, but no one wanted him. It was clear that he had run because he was unable to repay his debts and that he was only interested in parliamentary immunity. He probably spent more on his campaign than any other candidate, although there is a spending limit set at a measly LE10,000. A few years later, his parliamentary immunity was stripped because he had dual French-Egyptian nationality (officially) and because the NDP wanted the seat for its own candidate (the real reason). Around that time, he fled the country as he was being threatened with jail for defaulting on his debt. He moved to Paris, did some business there as well as London and Algiers--he seemed to be happy outside of Egypt, although rumors surfaced every now and then that he was negotiating with the regime about his debts and assets. To be fair, it is true that Lakah's construction and medical business was owed money by the government, which was very slow in paying in debts at the time. But the man's character is still notoriously flawed.
And then a few days ago a friend sends me this incredible piece from Nina Shea that recasts Lakah as an Egyptian Chababi:
That's hilarious. It's true that Lakah was on the board of the Egyptian Organization of Human Rights, but he never was part of those who went out of their way to fight for human rights in Egypt. As for the other attributes she gives him, most are ridiculous. In her attempt to depict Lakah as a Christian leader (she has a long history of manipulating discrimination against Christians and formerly visited Egypt as a member of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, a body stacked with Christian and Jewish fundamentalists like Shea and Elliott Abrams), she even makes the mistake of saying he is Coptic--he's actually Catholic. But that is the least of many mistakes and outright lies. The problem is, considering where it is coming from, these are dangerous lies. If Lakah was even a tenth of what Chalabi is, the problem would be different, but in this case either she is an idiot or Lakah paid her a fat sum to write what she did.
When I was starting out as a reporter for the Cairo Times in 2000, I became fixated with a man whose story, I believed, represented everything that went wrong with the Egyptian economy in the late 1990s. Rami Lakah was a businessman who had borrowed an enormous amount of money from Egyptian banks in the mid-1990s to expand his medical services empire and constitute a sizable private wealth. In the 2000 parliamentary elections, he ran and won in Cairo's Ezbekiah district. Lakah flirted with several parties, including the NDP, but no one wanted him. It was clear that he had run because he was unable to repay his debts and that he was only interested in parliamentary immunity. He probably spent more on his campaign than any other candidate, although there is a spending limit set at a measly LE10,000. A few years later, his parliamentary immunity was stripped because he had dual French-Egyptian nationality (officially) and because the NDP wanted the seat for its own candidate (the real reason). Around that time, he fled the country as he was being threatened with jail for defaulting on his debt. He moved to Paris, did some business there as well as London and Algiers--he seemed to be happy outside of Egypt, although rumors surfaced every now and then that he was negotiating with the regime about his debts and assets. To be fair, it is true that Lakah's construction and medical business was owed money by the government, which was very slow in paying in debts at the time. But the man's character is still notoriously flawed.
And then a few days ago a friend sends me this incredible piece from Nina Shea that recasts Lakah as an Egyptian Chababi:
Brave leaders who are committed to individual civil and political freedoms exist within Egyptian society. Ramy Lakah can be added to the list of heroic Egyptian dissidents who include Saad Eddin Ibrahim and Ayman Nour — they are the Andrei Sakharovs, Vaclav Havels, and Natan Sharanskys of their day.
That's hilarious. It's true that Lakah was on the board of the Egyptian Organization of Human Rights, but he never was part of those who went out of their way to fight for human rights in Egypt. As for the other attributes she gives him, most are ridiculous. In her attempt to depict Lakah as a Christian leader (she has a long history of manipulating discrimination against Christians and formerly visited Egypt as a member of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, a body stacked with Christian and Jewish fundamentalists like Shea and Elliott Abrams), she even makes the mistake of saying he is Coptic--he's actually Catholic. But that is the least of many mistakes and outright lies. The problem is, considering where it is coming from, these are dangerous lies. If Lakah was even a tenth of what Chalabi is, the problem would be different, but in this case either she is an idiot or Lakah paid her a fat sum to write what she did.
Reader Comments (4)
I read that article and thought it sounded dumb, but didn't know enough about Lakah to have an opinion. In what capacity did he win the election, was he allied with Al Ghad, did he set up the NGOs she mentions? If you can point me to your past articles on the subject, I'd be interested in reading up on the next US hero...
Hi,
I can give you some juicy details about both Lakah and Shea.
The story of Lakah, a Greek Melkite, is even better/worse than that. Lakah back in 1999 paid out of his own pocket a full page add in the international Heral Tribune and I believe a major US paper (cant remember if WP or NYT) denouncing "dark forces" outside egypt theratening national unity. The add is reproduced on the Egyptian Information Minister website (http://www.sis.gov.eg/online/html/coptab2.htm).
I know for a fact that the government actually asked Lakah to run this add in exchange for letting him run and win in the coming election. Lkah is overall a despicable caracter and was ready to do anything to get elected.
Here is another example. Lakah ran in Doher. As a campaign move he sponsored the College de La Salle annual festival and posted huge campaign banner inside the college without informing the Jesuits who run the place and made them quite angry.
Nina Shea the author of the article is also a character. She started her religious freedom organization in the 90's I believe and the entire structure became part of Freedom House a "Human Rights" NGO with a shady past known for its involvement with anti-communist milicia in central america.
Nina Shea has been involved on coptic issue in the past . She was instrumental in the passing of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, that create an independant commision on religious freedom outside the US. She worked on the legislation with Franck Wolf a very conservative Representative of Virginia kown for its ties to the Christian Right and with US Copts a militant coptic organisation whose mailing list is full of the worst Islam bashing discourse available.
Greg, thanks for the details on Lakah. I'm familiar with Freedom House (which represents the worst of Washington insiders with zero regional knowledge but a set ideological frame to see any issue through) and the Int'l Religious Freedom committee (which tends to defend the freedom of religion of Christians, and that's it).
Some one can be rightfully described as a Coptic Catholic, as 'Coptic' itself denotes [the] Egyptian Church, and not a religious sect. Very much like Syriac & Armenian Orthodox/Catholic
I never seem to have enough of hammering on this issue, but I guess it's OK since I hadn't mentioned it here before.
As a side note, AlDhaher, where Lakah ran for parliament, is an old, once classy neighbourhood of Cairo, where a large number of Jews and Levantine Christians, in addition to wealthy Muslims lived.
I've met many Americans who are trying to study and understand the Egyptian society. Politicians however, seem very much uninformed.